Former UW asst. police chief now at center of pepper spray controversy

In this Friday, Nov. 18, 2011, photo University of California, Davis, Police Lt. John Pike uses pepper spray to move Occupy UC Davis protesters while blocking their exit from the school's quad Friday in Davis, Calif.

There is a Seattle connection to the growing controversy over police officers who pepper-sprayed nonviolent protesters at the University of California, Davis. Annette Spicuzza, the campus police chief who is now on paid administrative leave, used to be the assistant chief at the University of Washington Police Department.

As The Associated Press reports, video of the officers’ actions went viral, triggering a national debate about how far cops should go to disperse peaceful demonstrators. Video shows a police officer pacing back and forth with a canister of pepper spray as he douses Occupy Wall Street protesters huddled together on the ground.

Vice Chancellor John Meyer said the decision to place Chief Spicuzza on administrative leave was necessary to allow “a fact-based review of events, assist in calming the community environment, and allow the department to focus on its current and substantial demands,” according to a statement. Two police officers also were placed on leave while an investigation is conducted.

As the Los Angeles Times reports, Spicuzza had originally defended the officers, saying: “The students had encircled the officers. They needed to exit. They were looking to leave but were unable to get out.”

Spicuzza’s tenure as assistant police chief at UW lasted from 2000 to 2005, Slog reports. Spicuzza was often a spokeswoman for the department, and was quoted in this 2002 Seattle Post-Intelligencer story about a debate over whether off-duty police officers should be allowed to bring guns into sporting events.

The confrontation happened after 10 protesters were arrested Friday in connection with an overnight camp of about 25 tents on the UC Davis campus, according to university officials. The protesters were cited and released on misdemeanor charges of unlawful assembly and failure to disperse. Eleven protesters were treated after getting sprayed, including two who were taken to a hospital.

The Associated Press has more on the controversy:

Many students, lawmakers and even the university’s chancellor have called the officers’ actions a horrific example of unnecessary force. But some experts on police tactics say, depending on the circumstances, pepper spray can be more effective to de-escalate a tense situation than dragging off protesters or swinging at them with truncheons.

“Between verbalized commands and knock-down, drag-out fights, there’s quite a bit of wiggle room,” said David Klinger, a former Los Angeles Police Department officer and instructor at the University of Missouri St. Louis who reviewed the pepper spray footage.

Soon after the incident on Friday at the University of California, Davis, video recordings spread across the Internet.

The footage of an officer casually spraying an orange cloud at protesters’ heads while spectators screamed in horror joined other much-discussed pepper-spray incidents, such as the 84-year-old activist hit in the face in Seattle and a Portland, Ore., woman who recently was sprayed in the mouth.